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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
My wife and I watched The Brothers Grimsby, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong.

There are literally no words to describe this film.

When I wasn't laughing, I was closing my eyes and trying not to gag...

Sascha Baron Cohen takes things overboard, IMO. I can't watch his movies. Too bad Mark Strong decided to make this one with him. I thought he had more sense than that!
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
"Rome Adventure" 1962 via TCM (the greatest station in the world)
  • Basically a blended travelogue-short-of-Italy with an early '60s "risqué" college-age-boy-girl movie that can't quite bring itself to really do anything too risqué
  • Having young and pretty Angie Dickinson and Suzanne Pleshette both chase of-the-moment Troy Donahue had to bring in the youth audience
  • It's fun to look at but drags along after a bit because you get tired of all the angst these young, pretty and should-be-having-a-great-time-being-young-and-pretty-in-Italy characters create over not sleeping together or over his being interested in her / not her or her being interested in him / not him - you get the point
    • And my God, Troy Donahue - you're young, good looking, with enough money to play for a summer in Italy with two beautiful young ladies, stop looking so morose ALL THE TIME - your life is better than most
  • Either make "Pillow Talk" (stupid, silly but fun) or "The Apartment," (gritty, real to life and engaging) but this movie can't decide 'till the end if it wants to play it safe or edgy, so it winds up unclear and uninspired
N.B., to Fedora Lounge fans of 50s/60s men's Ivy attire: Donahue's outfits are pitch perfect. Seersucker and cotton poplin suits, 3/2 sack sport coats, flat front chinos, bucks, loafers, white socks, narrow ties, wool pullovers - he's practically Ivy dress come alive
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
Sascha Baron Cohen takes things overboard, IMO. I can't watch his movies. Too bad Mark Strong decided to make this one with him. I thought he had more sense than that!

Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz are in it as well! We'd never heard of it, apparently cost $35 million to make and grossed (pun intended) only about $25 million world wide! Came out last year, same time as Zootopia and 10 Cloverfield Lane - who knew?

It was free for us, PVR'd it because Strong was in it!
 
Messages
12,017
Location
East of Los Angeles
Sascha Baron Cohen takes things overboard, IMO. I can't watch his movies...
I agree. I've tried to watch one or two of his movies over the years just to see what all the fuss was about, but couldn't watch more than maybe 20-30 minutes before deciding I'd rather be doing anything else; his style of "humor" just isn't for me. That being said, I did enjoy his voice work as King Julien in the Madagascar animated movies.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
My wife had our youngest out at her dance class end of year rehearsal, so eldest and I took the opportunity to watch Persuasion, the 2007 adaptation.

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Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Key Largo with Bogie and Bacall! (And Edward G. Robinson!)

Saw about a half hour of it with the sound off yesterday as I was trying to work (but cheating as I kept looking at it - I've seen it 7000 times anyway). How funny is it to see gangsters getting into a boat to flee the country dressed in suits, ties and spectator shoes? For some reason, it just had me chuckling. Robinson, who plays a serious bad guy (and is such a great actor), looks a bit dandyish. My guess, this only stood out to me 'cause I had the sound off.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
"La La Land"

It's rare, but sometimes style, effort, the willingness to take a chance make a movie better than its parts, better than its story, better than, well, it should be.

Other than hearing the brief buzz when it was released, I knew almost nothing about "La La Land" before we popped the DVD in. It's a musical - I guess - whose music is uneven, dancing fun (but Fred and Ginger's status is safe) and whose whimsy is too obvious, but still smile-worthy.

Pulling from Tracey-Hepburn, Fred and Ginger, "West Side Story," MGM's 1930's spectacles and a heck of a lot more, this quixotic romance bounces along unevenly on incredibly retro-fun verve and star power.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling - playing strivers trying to break through in acting and jazz, respectably - are the star power and they don't disappoint in this, striped of its baubles, basic "boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy does or does not get girl back" story that ambles along, like everything in this movie does, on cuteness and style.

I'd go on with the story, but it's conventional and the movie is not about the story. You either enjoy the ride, the energy, the echo Art Deco, the echo '40s dresses, the echo Fred and Ginger, the echo - you get it.

Overall, I enjoyed it coming in with no expectations and being pulled along by its vintage brio and willing-to-be-different enthusiasm. My guess, you'll like it or hate it - as on the wrong day, I might have been in the latter camp myself.
 
Messages
10,851
Location
vancouver, canada
Just finished watching the Natalie Portman vanity project (she wrote, directed and starred) "Tales of Love and Darkness" In my estimation it is a brilliant movie. I loved everything about it. A real surprise as the IMDB ratings are middle 6's.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
"Legal Eagles" a throwaway but fun '80s movie with Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah (and Brain Dennehy - playing one of the two characters he usually plays, but as always, doing it well).

You can feel that they were trying to capture a Tracy-Hepburn playfulness and banter with Redford and Winger, they just couldn't quite do it, in part because the movie couldn't figure out if it wanted to be a light-hearted romcom or a harder mystery / crime story.

Daryl Hannah proves that being really blonde, really tall and really arresting looking combined with average acting skills is enough to get you a decent-sized roll in a Hollywood movie.

I saw this one when it came out on cable - hard to believe thirty years have gone by. As a kid in the late '60s, those movies from the '30s and '40s that seemed ancient that I watched were no older then, than "Legal Eagles" is now - odd to think of it that way.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,207
Location
Troy, New York, USA
"My Honor Was Loyalty" - Let me be quite clear DO NOT watch this "movie". I don't care how much of a WWII nut you are this thing is despicable in all regards. This film is probably the worst I've EVER seen in my 60 plus years of life. This "film" purports to show the trials and tribulations of a Sgt. leading a squad of soldiers in the elite 1st SS Division, also known as the Adolph Hitler Division. I personally wouldn't mind a film from that angle. "Das Boot" was a masterpiece as was "Birth of a Nation" from a filmic standpoint. But this Italian made monstrosity shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as ANY war film.

Production values: None, re-enactors running through and over the same fields in Italy over and over again. T-34's as Panzers, CGI fighters zoom over head, ketchup for blood etc... you know the drill.

Acting: None, I've seen film school projects with better acting.

Purpose: Unapologetic pro-Nazi propaganda. The film's message is that ALL sides in the war committed crimes but the Allies crimes were covered up because they won the war! The Sgt. and his Lieutenant fight their way though Eastern Europe and France and claim to have "never killed a jew"???!!!!! They had no idea what other SS units were doing in EVERY Russian, Czech, Polish and Romanian village they took? Are you kiddin' me????

Yes... I know full well America's sordid history with eugenics, forced sterilization, anti-Semitism, racism, genocide and the forced internment of Japanese Americans, all that being said none of the Allied nations (not quite sure of Russia) practiced industrialized mass murder in the name of their leader! This movie was made in 2016, who funded this s**t? Who's responsible for this cinematic atrocity? If you can't tell I'm pissed! If you want to see the German side of the land war in Europe, see the German mini-series "Generation War".

Worf
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
The Clock (1945) Sad how young both Joe Allen and Judy Garland died. Was their a WWII movie with out Allen playing a young soldier? An exaggeration, but he sure was in a lot of them during the war!
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,207
Location
Troy, New York, USA
The Clock (1945) Sad how young both Joe Allen and Judy Garland died. Was their a WWII movie with out Allen playing a young soldier? An exaggeration, but he sure was in a lot of them during the war!
Nope... From "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" to "Bataan" to you name it. He was every mother's son in uniform.... And boy could he work that gum.

Worf
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,081
Location
London, UK
Yes... I know full well America's sordid history with eugenics, forced sterilization, anti-Semitism, racism, genocide and the forced internment of Japanese Americans, all that being said none of the Allied nations (not quite sure of Russia) practiced industrialized mass murder in the name of their leader! This movie was made in 2016, who funded this s**t? Who's responsible for this cinematic atrocity? If you can't tell I'm pissed! If you want to see the German side of the land war in Europe, see the German mini-series "Generation War".

Worf



Indeed. While I'll be the first to argue we're long overdue Hollywood getting past the WW2 era Allied propaganda agenda, going all "Nazis - they weren't all bad!" seems rather a step too far, to say the least!
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
The Clock (1945) Sad how young both Joe Allen and Judy Garland died. Was their a WWII movie with out Allen playing a young soldier? An exaggeration, but he sure was in a lot of them during the war!

Best part of the movie is all the footage of the original NYC Penn Station. I love Grand Central, but have to admit, from the footage I've seen, it looks like Penn was the more impressive of the two NYC train stations.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,207
Location
Troy, New York, USA
"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" followed by "Reptilicus" - The first is almost a classic the second.... errr.... not so much! Double creature feature thanks to TCM! Reptilicus is practically a travelogue for Copenhagen... They show this beautiful city... then spend the next hour blowing it to hell and back. Gotta love it man!

Worf
 

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